Backyard Chickens for Eggs...worth it? Smell? Loud? Rewarding? You Decide!

[Music] so you're thinking about raising a backyard flock just like this right here but somebody in the house is a pretty tough sell if you guys know anybody that's a tough sell share this video this is going to be a pretty cool educational video about having and keeping backyard chickens so come along on the stoney ridge farm i'm josh and we're going to teach you everything you need to know about raising backyard chicken welcome to the stoney ridge farm it's a beautiful day every day here on the stoney ridge this is my backyard flock okay so this is my flock of chickens there are eight laying hens in here there are various varieties what i did was order from murray mcmurray hatchery and i ordered the brown egg layer mix because i like brown eggs there's really no difference in the flavor of brown eggs there's your first educational moment a brown eggs the same as a white egg it doesn't matter we're going to talk about chicken breeds we're going to talk about whether you live in town whether you live in the country the thought processes that you need to have when you're keeping backyard chickens now our chickens are right next to our garden there's a reason because the manure from the chickens goes into the compost pile right here and i've got a pretty significantly sized garden back here and that's enough really to feed a family of four for sure now right beside the garden we've got the honeybees there'll be more of that so jump in subscribe to the channel we'll teach you a little bit more about honeybees we're on 150 acre first generation farm here in the foothills of the blue ridge mountains of north carolina and we've got some cows down there too it's a good time so let's talk a little bit about this backyard flock and what you guys need to look forward to if you're deciding you're going to raise your own chickens in your backyard now you may live in a municipality where this might be illegal check into your local municipalities have i had chickens when i lived in the city yes was it legal no it wasn't legal i wasn't supposed to have chickens but i had them anyway and the neighborhood loved it i sold eggs and it supported my chicken habit so without further ado we're going to walk you around the coop and talk about these chickens all right folks this is my little backyard flock and despite the fact that i live on a large piece of property i live in 150 acres i still call these my backyard chickens they're actually in my front yard they help support the garden right over here they scratch through the garden after it's all done and they also help support my egg habit and provide fertilizer for my yard at times now the only modification i've really made to this coop since i bought it is this chicken guard automatic chicken coop door opener you can see it closing right now it's been on there for about two years and i built this coop somewhere in the neighborhood of six years ago this is just about right to house eight chickens i have had as many as 12 chickens in here and it's done just fine however i was overrun with eggs so i ended up giving away some of those chickens to folks that could use them so this is an eight by eight run out here so in other words eight by eight it's sitting on four by fours pressure treated four by fours that's what's touching the ground and then i built a frame an eight by eight frame this is four feet tall okay if i had to do it again i'd probably build it a full eight feet tall so that i could get in there up a little higher and i could shovel this out and clean it out just a little bit easier there are a whole lot of thought processes at work here there are solar lights all around the coop right here that's to help deter predators you can see a solar light there this is a motion activated solar light that's a solar light they're all over the coop and that helps me to keep predators away because you're not really fencing in chickens as much as you're fencing out predators these guys are cute aren't they very cool so the water that i have in here and you can see what chickens can destroy they will destroy they've already kicked up a bunch of this new straw that i put in into the water that's okay you got to clean the water about once a week kind of a saturday or sunday chore chickens are chicken they're scared of you so you see how they run away from me every time i get close to them that's perfectly normal guys this is a latch mechanism that i use on my chicken coop and i also have that latch mechanism right there in case we make a boo-boo we always close each one of these latches this is a swarm trap for my honey bees that's honey bee jail now over here on the outside of the coop this is the coop sleeping area and we call that the run this is where the birds sleep and they eat okay we'll open this guy up same latch mechanism also put some bolts on here too this latch works the best this is like a gate latch you can get it for like four bucks at your local home improvement store so inside here are the nesting boxes we have one two three four five six seven nesting boxes right here and right here is our hanging feeder okay this feeder is hanging by a little hook and a chain and the reason it's hanging is because if it's close to the ground the chickens will do this okay they'll take their foot and they'll peck that stuff out and they'll waste it i use pellets okay layer pellets and those that's just the do-more tractor supply brand that i use right there works pretty good this coupe is a four by eight meaning it's based on a four foot by eight foot pressure treated piece of plywood and that's what the floor is you can see right here i've got it designed where i can slide a wheelbarrow up underneath here i slide this board out and then i can rake all my manure and all of my goodies into the wheelbarrow and put them into the garden very cool almost automated now if we come out here i built a nesting box and i do not have plans for this guys you're gonna have to use your imagination and build this coop on your own okay so we've got four four by fours right here that hold the coop up it's open to air i live here in north carolina this is open to air it helps it breathe it helps to get rid of dust and it's good for the chickens awesome i only have to button this up in the very very cold part of the winter and when i do that i'll just wrap it in plastic clear plastic okay we'll open up to our eggs this is our egg bin you can see i put these little latches on here that will help hold it up so that i don't have to hold it up the whole time there's also a light right here in case we're getting eggs up after dark very very cool and i did have a little hydraulic cylinder on here that came out of my car but uh that has since gone by the wayside it just fell apart kinda so if you look down in here you'll see the eggs here's what you need to know about eggs the chickens are going to try and lay these eggs and they're going to have poop on them sometimes that's just normal they're going to try and lay all their eggs in one of these laying boxes and i've dispersed the eggs just a little bit and i just repacked everything you want to keep good fresh straw and or sawdust and shaving straw in the nesting boxes sawdust and shavings in the coop and in the run is what i use most of the time but for today's video i went ahead and just put straw in there chickens will peck through it get all the seeds out and they'll utilize it a whole lot so what you need if you've got all your chickens are laying into one box you want to get some fake eggs i'll post links to these guys using golf balls or just a ceramic egg it's not a real egg i put an x on it because it's so realistic looking that i pick it up and i take it home sometimes and i'll end up washing it off and i'm like oh man that's got an x on it all right we'll close this guy down and that's just how easy it is to access the eggs we also have a latch here in case raccoons decide they want to come in we'll just latch it right there so folks that's my little backyard flock that's the coupe design that's everything you need to know about raising a backyard flock now if you live in town let's talk about this if you live in the city you don't want a rooster okay i don't have a rooster out here and let's get rid of that rumor that you need a rooster for your chickens to lay you don't need a rooster for your chickens to lay you do need a rooster for the eggs to be fertilized if you're a woman do you need a man for yourself to ovulate no you don't just the same as a chicken and chicken just keeps producing egg after egg after egg so i get somewhere in a neighborhood of three to four dozen eggs a week out of these chickens i share them or i sell them to the neighbors it's just a fun thing to do and a rewarding thing to have i never ever run out of eggs and everybody always appreciates it when you come visit their house and give them a fresh dozen eggs right off your farm now i feed the layer pellets okay and i don't feed any kind of special feed you can feed in organic feed if you would like to do that the layer pellets are better than the crumbles because they don't waste as much they don't rake as much off in the floor and waste it and it's all about dollars spent versus dollars returned now if you're buying eggs for six bucks a dozen at the grocery store that are organic and you want to feed your birds organic chicken feed then go for it for sure i think this is an awesome design there is no smell there's no stink the nastiest thing again that you'll have to deal with is washing the eggs and cleaning the coop the longer you wait the nastier the coop will be if it's raining outside the dirtier the eggs will be it's just that simple guys there'll be links at the end of this video in case you guys decide you want to raise meat birds i've got tons of content out there and i've got a everything chickens playlist that i think you guys will really appreciate so i'll post links at the end of this video to what you do when you get your chickens from the hatchery everything you need to know about raising your own flock in your backyard so that you can be successful raising chickens it's not nasty it's not messy it's rewarding it's fun they're cute and if you decide you don't want them you can always get rid of them because people are always out there wanting chickens don't get white leg horns if you live in town because they are really loud so the best thing to do is research your breeds and find the best breed for you these are not pets as you can tell they run away from you and chickens will do that because they're chicken that's what they do man they're not cuddly pets they do carry salmonella so if you're handling a chicken you want to be sure and wash your hands and don't get that thing near your nose or your mouth because you can run a risk of getting salmonella poison we don't want you to get sick from your chickens we want you to be happy and have happy chickens guys thanks a lot for joining me here on the stoney ridge farm please pound that like button jump in subscribe the channel i'd love to have you back just thought i'd do a little chicken talk for those of you who are trying to convince a significant other that we should get backyard chickens well now you know it's pretty easy and it's fun thanks guys we'll see you next time